1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a connector in which terminals within a connector housing are retained by retaining lances and retaining members in a double manner, and the bending of the retaining lances are prevented by protruding portions of a front holder.
2. Description of the Related Art
FIG. 15 shows one conventional connector (see Patent Literature).
This connector 81 comprises a connector housing 82 made of a synthetic resin, and terminals 100 (each having a wire connected thereto) inserted in respective terminal receiving chambers 83 of the connector housing 82. Elastic lances 84 for primarily retaining purposes and retaining members 85 for secondarily retaining purposes are provided at the connector housing 82, and each retaining member 85 is provided so as to be pivotally moved about a hinge formed at a rear end thereof.
The retaining member 85 has a provisionally-retaining step portion 87 and a completely-retaining step portion 88 for an opening portion 86 in the connector housing 82. In a provisionally-retained condition of the retaining member 85 shown in FIG. 15, each terminal 100 is inserted into the terminal receiving chamber 83 through a rear opening 83a, and is primarily retained by the retaining lance 84, and then when the retaining member 85 is pushed into the connector housing 82, a step portion 102 of the terminal 100 is retained in a secondary manner by a front end surface of the retaining member 85.
In FIG. 15, although only the upper terminal receiving chambers 83 are shown, terminal receiving chambers are also provided in a lower portion of the connector housing, and these lower terminal receiving chambers are arranged in staggered and inverted relation to the upper terminal receiving chambers 83. In FIG. 15, reference numeral 89 denotes a partition wall between the adjacent lower terminal receiving chambers. Terminals 100 received respectively in the lower terminal receiving chambers are retained in a double manner by the lower retaining member 85 similar to the upper retaining member 85.
FIG. 16 shows another conventional connector (see Patent Literature 2).
This connector 91 comprises a synthetic resin-made connector housing 92, a synthetic resin-made front holder 93 attached to a front portion of the connector housing 92, and female terminals 95 (each having a wire connected thereto) inserted in respective terminal receiving chambers 94 of the connector housing 92.
The connector housing 92 has terminal retaining lances 96, and the front holder 93 has plate-like protruding portions 98 for insertion into respective bending space 97 for the retaining lances 96.
In a condition (provisionally-retained condition) in which the front holder 93 is slightly withdrawn forward from the connector housing 92, each terminal 95 is inserted into the terminal receiving chamber 94, and is retained by the retaining lance 96. Then, when the front holder 93 is pushed, each protruding portion 98 enters the corresponding bending space 97 for the retaining lance 96 to prevent the bending of the retaining lance 96, thereby enhancing a terminal retaining force (that is, achieving the double retaining of the terminal).
If any of the terminals 95 is incompletely inserted, the corresponding retaining lance 96 is kept in a bent condition, and the protruding portion 98 abuts against this retaining lance 96, and therefore the front holder 93 can not pushed any further, so that the abnormal insertion of the terminal is detected.                Patent Literature 1: JP-A-10-312847 (FIG. 7)        Patent Literature 2: JP-A-2001-185275(FIG. 7)        
However, in the conventional connector 81 of FIG. 15, the upper and lower terminals inserted in the connector housing and primarily retained by the respective retaining lances 84 must be retained in a secondary manner by pushing the upper and lower retaining members 85 one by one into the connector housing, and therefore there has been encountered a problem that much time and labor are required for the secondary retaining of the terminals. And besides, there has been a fear that the worker may forget to push part of the retaining members 85 for secondarily retaining purposes. It is feared that this problem arises particularly in the case where a plurality of retaining members 85 are provided at the upper side or the lower side of the connector housing 82. Furthermore, even if there is provided only one retaining member 85, there has been a fear that the provisionally-retaining operation or the completely-retaining operation for the retaining member 85 may sometimes be incomplete, since the worker manually pushes the retaining member 85 into the connector housing.
Furthermore, when the two retaining step portions 87 and 88 of the retaining member 85 are subjected to wear, etc., as a result of repeating the retaining operation, there have been fears that the retaining member 85 may fail to be provisionally retained but may be completely retained, thus lowering the efficiency of the terminal inserting operation and that a click feel obtained upon provisional retaining or completely retaining of the retaining member 85 may be lowered.
In the case where different kinds (in size and shape) of terminals are to be received in one connector housing, the positions of the retaining lances 84 are offset in the longitudinal direction of the terminals, so that the retaining member 85 can not be properly disposed. Also, even in the case the terminals of the same kind are used such that the terminals in the upper terminal receiving chambers 83 and the terminals in the lower terminal receiving chambers are not inverted relative to each other, but are disposed in the same posture, there has been encountered a problem that the retaining members 85 can not be properly disposed, so that the double retaining of the terminals can not be effected.